(October 30, 1988)

Mrs. Reagan. I'm greatly honored, and this means a
very great deal to me personally. Arnold, your remarks were really so
kind, and I appreciate them so much. You were kind enough to mention
the thousands of people, young and old, who have a special place in
my heart.

You know, for the last 8 years, I've had a unique opportunity
to witness the extraordinary compassion of the American people—people
like each of you, like each of you have for those who are less fortunate.
So, let me just say that, really, this award belongs to the millions
of American volunteers—to the parents and children involved in
the 15,000 Just Say No programs around the country, and the 24,000 men
and women participating in the Foster Grandparent Program, to the doctors
and others working with the Gift of Life Program, and to all of those
who have worked so long for the Special Olympics, and to so many, many
giving and generous people. So, on their behalf, I very gratefully accept
this award. Thank you very much.

The President. I'm honored more than you can know to
receive this year's Humanitarian Award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
To receive an award given in honor of one of the true heroes of the
20th century, a man whose name will ever be inscribed in the book of
life, is indeed a humbling experience. For what Simon Wiesenthal represents
are the animating principles of Western civilization since the day Moses
came down from Sinai: the idea of justice, the idea of laws, the idea
of the free will. God gave us this instruction in Deuteronomy: "I
call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today, that I have set
before you life and death. Therefore choose life, so that you may live,
you and your descendants."

Those monsters who made the Holocaust-they chose death,
with results almost too awful to grasp. The mind reels from the enormity
of the crime. It begs to be set free from so terrible a fact, to wipe
it from the memory. But people like Simon Wiesenthal have made us understand
that we must not, we cannot, and we will not. His life is testimony
to his unwavering commitment to do honor to those who burned in the
flames of the Holocaust by bringing their murderers and the accomplices
of their murderers to the justice of a civilized world that, two score
after, still reels in astonishment and disgust. And I salute him on
his 80th birthday, as do we all.

But out of the ashes of the Holocaust there came a
good thing, a great thing, called the State of Israel. And like Simon
Wiesenthal, the animating principles of the State of Israel are justice
and law tempered with compassion—yes, the very principles of Judaism
itself. And we Americans, with our Judeo-Christian heritage, have no
better friends than the people of Israel.

We acknowledge this truth, and our administration has
made the ties that bind us warmer than they have ever been. In the last
5 years, we initiated an unprecedented strategic understanding with
the State of Israel. We negotiated a free-trade area between our two
countries. Most important, perhaps, we promised that we would not permit
Israel to lose its qualitative edge in the Middle East, and we delivered
on that promise. This record of friendship and fealty moved the Democratic
mayor of New York City to say the other week that our administration
was the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House.

Well, America and Israel share an understanding forged
in the blood and horror of the Second World War. It is not enough for
us to invoke our common traditions, to praise ourselves for our Judeo-Christian
morality and our decency. We also must defend our traditions, our morality,
and our decency. The West knows all too well what happens when the barbarians
believe they can act unchecked. All we need do is look at Simon Wiesenthal's
life: a stepfather dead in one of Stalin's prisons, a mother killed
by Hitler's gas chambers, himself a survivor of the camps.

We must defend ourselves against the evil of totalitarianism.
We must follow his example and never waver in our pursuit of justice,
never waver in our pursuit of resolve. We must remain strong, and we
must be willing to use force when we're under threat. This is a lesson
that binds us still closer to the State of Israel, for the fact is:
a strong Israel depends upon a strong America. An America that loses
faith in the idea of a strong defense is an America that will lose faith
in a nation at arms like Israel.

That same strength and resolve coupled with diplomatic
vision and a commitment to political reconciliation are essential if
Israel is to help achieve a negotiated settlement among the war-weary
peoples of the Middle East. Strength and resolve will likewise be the
means of resolving our quest for the freedom of those Soviet Jews who
seek to make their lives in the West. And when these become realities—and,
ladies and gentlemen, I believe with all my heart they will—then,
and only then, will the struggle of Simon Wiesenthal achieve its ultimate
aim: peace for the Jewish people.

And as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Kristallnacht,
that dreadful night in 1938 when Hitler's plan for the Jews began to
take its final shape, we vow to be vigilant in our battle against those
who would follow Hitler's example. This is our cause. To further it,
I will presently sign the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide, and so, will affirm America's commitment to
the profound biblical admonition: Therefore choose life!